We are concerned with the question of how and why language use changes in the elderly population, and what to do about such changes. Insufficient national attention, we believe, has been focussed on health-related aspects (neurological, psychiatric, psycholinguistic, therapeutic) of language and communication in the elderly. We propose a two-day conference on this topic, bringing together both established and younger researchers and clinicians. Areas of expertise and interest will include psychology, psychiatry, speech pathology and audiology, neurology, linguistics, gerontology. One series of sessions will deal with clinical and therapeutic issues; another, with experimental issues. Fourteen of the sixteen recognized experts we will invite have already accepted our invitation to present papers. Younger participants will be selected from responses to a call-for-papers. Our goals are to encourage an intensive interchange of ideas among experts on problems of communication in the elderly; to present a multidisciplinary review of current trends; and to stimulate younger researchers and clinicians to apply themselves to questions of language and aging.